VietNamNet Bridge – Nguyen Thanh Binh on September 9 was elected as Party Chief of Ha Tinh province for the 2010-2015 term. This is the first provincial party chief elected directly at a Party Congress.
The congress had 348 deputies, representing 84,000 members of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Ha Tinh province.

Previously, provincial party chiefs were elected by provincial party committees, not by all Party members.

Around 15-20 percent of provinces and cities in Vietnam will elect their party chiefs this way, on an experimental basis.